Bud White
Referenced in *L.A. Confidential History When Bud was sixteen he witnessed his dad kill his mom, helpless to stop it. The old man came home; he must have believed his son’s warning: you touch Mother again and I will kill you. Asleep—cuffs on his wrists and ankles, awake—he saw the fuck beat Mother dead with a tire iron. He screamed his throat raw; he stayed cuffed in the room with the body: a week, no water, delirious—he watched his mother rot. A truant officer found him; the L.A. Sheriff’s found the old man. The trial, a diminished capacity defense, a plea bargain down to Manslaughter Two. Life imprisonment, the old man paroled in twelve years. His son—Officer Wendell White, LAPD—decided to kill him. The old man was nowhere. He’d jumped parole; prowling his L.A. haunts turned up nothing. Bud kept looking, kept waking to the sound of women screaming. The old man was nowhere. He made the Bureau, partnered up with Dick Stens. Dick showed him the ropes, heard out his story, told him to pick his shots to get even. Pops would stay nowhere, but thumping wife beaters might drive the nightmares out of his system. Bud picked a great first shot: a domestic squawk, the complainant a longtime punching bag, the arrestee a three-time loser. He detoured on the way to the station, asked the guy if he’d like to tango with a man for a change: no cuffs, a walk on the charge if he won. The guy agreed; Bud broke his nose, his jaw, ruptured his spleen with a dropkick. Dick was right: his bad dreams stopped. His rep as the toughest man in the LAPD grew. He kept it up; he followed up: intimidation calls if the fuckers got acquitted, welcome home strongarms if they did time and got parole. He forced himself not to take gratitude lays and found women elsewhere. He kept a list of court and parole dates and sent the fuckers postcards at the honor farm; he got hit with excessive-force complaints and toughed them out. Dick Stens made him a decent detective; now he played nursemaid to his teacher: keeping him half sober on duty, holding him back when he got a hard-on to shoot for kicks. L.A. Confidential On Christmas Eve 1951 Bud waits for his partner, Dick Stensland, when Johnny Stompanato comes gets in his car, hoping for some cash since being out of work due to Mickey Cohen being in prison. Since he knows Bud hates wife beaters with a passion and gets money in return. Going after the guy he finally arrests him, but not before giving him a beating. Next him and Stens finally meet up and make an arrest of a call they got. Going to the party he goes out to get some fresh air but when it's heard that they captured two more individuals who attacked some cops a fight breaks out between the prisoners and cops, and when Bud enters he beats up one of them. When Ed comes to break it up Bud locks him in a supply closet. Bud thinks about his arrest quota and if he'll need a lawyer. When questioned by Chief Parker, Loew, and Dudley about the Bloody Christmas case he refuses to testify against his fellow officers. Drinking at a bar after the testimony Dudley comes and offers him a job with him with his Surveillance Detail. Bud also learns Dick Stensland will take the fall. Over his year in Surveillance Detail, Dudley's review says he's excelled in it and wants him to transfer to Homicide with him in 1953. As the police force enters the room to be briefed Bud looks to see how Ed looks and Dudley describes the crime scene. Afterward Thad Green tells everyone Ed will be running the investigation, to raucous boohs. Ed questions the three black men taken in as suspects in the Night Owl Massacre, playing them off against each other, but when Bud hears a woman was raped he bursts in the room and threatens the man being interrogated, getting a location he leaves both the man and Ed in fear. Going to the house Fontaine provided, he goes and finds Inez Soto and kills the man who had been one of her rapists. As he goes over the background checks of the Night Owl victims he finds out, one Mal Lunceford was a disgraced ex-cop, and the other man, Duke Cathcart was a pimp. Picking up two of his girls Bud discovers one said he had a big scheme planned, later revealed to be getting into smut. Having followed another one of them he finds she goes to a girl Cathcart knew, Kathy Janeway, a 14-year-old who Cathcart bought from another pimp. While leaving he sees a red sedan. Going over to Cathcart's place he feels something's off and vows to find out regardless of Dudley. Maybr fake Cathcart. Bud finds out Kathy was killed and goes to strongarms her old pimp, Gilette, who he finds out has the name of Patchett and Lynn Bracken in his whore book. (27) Dud tells him to drop the prostitutes death as well. Bud questions Patchett about & drives by Lynn's house. Cathcart (30) Bud questions Lynn about Patchett and at the end asks her on a date (33) Dudley and Loew tell Bud that he'll be questioning Coates et al and if he did, Stensland, who'd been indicted on 4 counts would go to 2. Agreeing he goes on his date with Lynn and they have sex, afterwards he goes on about the case and regrets it. Thinking on the case he ponders the Cathcart-Englekling-San Berdoo angle, that Cathcart (or fakr Cathcart) had looked for print shops in San Berdoo. (36) Bud goes and see Stens in prison before he's executed in '55. As 1957 comes Bud is reported to have taken sick leave and vacation time when Exley came into Homicide to take classes at USC and Quantico. It's also reported he's still been investigating the prostitute deaths, finding multiple ones. Bud recalls on the past few years and how he was leaving Homicide with his private files of prostitute snuffs. He also thinks about how Dick Stens left him 6K to which he payed for his education. Going over his case he recalls Gilette and Benavides, Janeway KAs said a guy who was impersonating Cathcart was going around talking about muscling his meager pimp biz. It was backed up by the Eng brothers allegations of being approached by Cathcart to print his smut. He'd been in Cathcart's apt and seen the clothes tossed. Idea, body ID'd wrong, fake Duke takes over clothes and all. was talking up fake smut, gigs and either was there on accident or on purpose. Leffeert from Berdoo. (43) Bud questions Mickey about the smut deal and he says he had no involvement and his gang doesn't seem to be responding to him and thanks Bud for being in the Mobster Squad. He says smut is only profitable when a high market only exists. Bud goes to Susan Leffert's home and finds the real Duke's body under her mom'd home. He then sells the story to Whisper to ruin Rd. (46) At the Victory motel a criminal tells Bud and Dot someone was moving in on Mick's franchises. (49) He questions Hinton who doesn't give much info on the hooker snuffs that Dud says to drop. Ed gets Bud to help him. (51) Bud and Dudley go to Gaitsville and look at the Englekling murder case, sees it was a torture chem job and heroin was left. Franz Englekling made drugs. (55) Goes to SF to investigate hooker snuffs, come close to, close to Spade Cooley, Loew. Bud continues to look for Spade at all his haunts. Finds out Lynn slept w/Ed and hits her. (61) At the Victory Dudley tells Bud his plans are coming into effect and makes a play a recruiting him. (63) Bud finds Lynn's book and blackmails Ed. Finds Spade and that Deuce did it. He goes to question Stomp on Deuce gets a bad feeling from Stomp and Abe and finds out Dud behind NO. (66) Bud figures out Dot had bought a gray car, painted it purple and planted it. (68) Bud and Ed question Timmy and Billy about Patchett's blackmail schemes and get nothing mentioning Stomp and Timmy reacts. They leave, Ed tells Fisk and Kleckner to follow them. (70) They go to Abe's to get info on Dudley and end up killing Vachss and Kikey T. (74) Category:Characters from L.A. Confidential